Friday, July 29, 2011

When I saw a bunch of plantains at a Malay stall, I immediately wanted to buy one. Just this one cost me RM3. It seemed pretty expensive for just 1 banana right? But when I asked Mike’s worker, who owns a banana plantation herself about the plantain I just bought, she said, it’s usually sold at RM5/kg. So, the one I got was worth the price. But she also commented my banana was not mature when picked. She said, the rear end of the fruit should be more enclosed.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

When I was a kid, there were some homemakers trying to make an extra buck by selling popsicles.

We will either call from the door or the window in Cantonese, “ Aunty, Ngo Ngoi Mai Suit Tiu” ( Aunty, I want to buy popsicle, 阿姨，我要买雪条)

Then someone will answer us, maybe not the Aunty, maybe their kid or any other person in the house. “Ngoi mat yeh mei?” (What flavour do you want? 要什么味?)

Then we will ask back, “ Kam Yat Yau Mat Yeh Mei” (What flavour do you have today? 今天有什么味?)

They might answer us , “Sarsi, Oleng, Laici, Mei Look, Kopi” (Sarsaparilla, Orange, Lychee, Milo and Coffee), with only one place that might say “MangKat!!!” (Jackfruit)

And this place that has “MangKat” flavoured popsicle is at Golden Dragon Garden’s flats, one of the ground floor units.
The Aunty or whosoever will then hand us our popsicles, with the top cut, and we will pay them either 10 sen or 20 sen, depending on flavour and the place you bought it. It was far far cheaper than buying ice cream at grocery stores.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Currently I’m living in a town where the food sucks. Sucks BIG TIME!! Wedding dinners here are either avoided by the younger generation or are forced by parents to be held at community halls, which is a far cry from prettily decorated dining halls in cities. Usually KK folks travel to Sungai Siput for restaurant cooked meals and they taste a lot lot better and are a lot cheaper than in KK.

This dish that I’m sharing today is a very weird dish that I once ate at a restaurant in Sungai Siput's Tai Chong. I was surrpised at the ingredient, wax apple. And to my surprise the taste and texture complemented well with the fish. With lovely wax apples bought from Jusco, I tried to recreate this dish, and I’m glad I did quite a good job on it.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Char Kway Teow (Fried Flat Rice Noodles) is how the world knows it.
Hum Darn Fun (Cockle Egg Rice Noodles) is how we Kamparians call it. FYI, Kampar is a small Chinese majority town in the state of Perak.

I grew up not knowing what is Kway Teow. More so know I didn't know its Cantonese translation as Guai Diu
I grew up eating Hor Fun or some call it Sar Hor Fun, that's how the Cantonese call those flat rice noodles.
I can recall how I laughed while holding my belly when my KLite Uni room mate called those noodles Guai Diu (like how you would pronounce 贵鸟in Cantonese）. She was just plain unlucky to have 2 Perakians as room mates and both of us were rolling on our beds laughing. We found the Cantonese translation of the Hokkien name for this noodle to sound vulgar (Ghost F***).

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

My secondary school (13-17 age) had a really large canteen. How large? As long as 6 classrooms, as wide as 2 labs. Everyday we’d look forward to beak time so that we can run down and be the first in line to get our food. Each session of break(3 sessions in total), you’d see 800 students scrambling to the canteen (the school had 48 classes in the morning and 16 classes in the afternoon, so 2 sessions in the morning and one in the afternoon) . So, you better not be the last

Monday, July 18, 2011

Our family business, which was a coffee stall passed down since my great grandpa’s days, was situated next to a noodle shop for almost 40 years. The noodle shop make their own wonton skins and wonton noodles. So, they tend to have excess bits from the sides or some broken pieces that can’t be used to wrap the wontons.

What they’ll do is, they’ll dry the unusable wonton skins and collect a heck lot of it. They’ll either give them away to friends or sell it if others want it.

Friday, July 15, 2011

If you love dense pancakes, then skip this.

This is a soft and fluffy pancake, that uses CREAM!! Hahaha. If you have that carton of cream and you are scratching your brains on how to use more of it before it spoils, try this out. The pancake uses cream, so does the pastry cream.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Don’t u think it’s weird to have durians in April? (I did this in April 2011)

All my life, on this side of the country, durians have always been bountiful mid year and year end. Never has it been in APRIL!!!! With none during those usual times. I had been searching for durians last Dec (2010), with only a speckful of them around town and the quality isn’t there. This didn't happen only last year, but for 2 consecutive years, I haven't been seeing durians coming out the time that it should. Times have changed and it’s a wake up call to us about the changes in weather. The fruit trees are telling you to take note.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

It was a lazy afternoon and I had some Korean strawberries and lots of cream in the fridge waiting for me to use use use. Let's just say, 3 cartons of half used or quarter used whipping cream, altogether 1.6L. Blame them on bake orders. They all came 5 days apart and I never sell bakes made from an old pack of cream (more than 3 days). Always new pack. Which is why I always had to think of ways to use up the balance. And the amount I needed was more than 200ml each time, so to purchase 2 small packs of cream is just not economical.

Friday, July 8, 2011

I'm sure this is a true local practice for Full Moon. Not a Chinese way, but more of Malaysian.

Here, there are a few foods used to celebrate full moon of the baby. Some serve or giveaway Pork Trotters in Vinegar, while some will prefer turmeric rice. If I'm not mistaken (pls correct me if I am wrong), the Malays use this for celebrations. For weddings, for giving thanks, for birthdays.. and sometimes shaped like a cake for the event. So, the Chinese who settled here took on the practice of using this to celebrate joyous occasions, specifically for Full Moon. Instead of serving this with rendang, the Chinese serves this with curry chicken. I cooked creamy curry chicken to go with mine.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Some look forward to pork trotters vinegar. Some look forward to turmeric rice with curry chicken. Some look forward to pickled young ginger. But most look forward to pickled papaya.

I guess pickled papaya is a local full moon fare. I don't think in China this is served. Do papayas grow there? I don't know, but it's like anywhere and everywhere here (besides in the concrete jungle of course). Throw some seeds onto the ground and few months later, you can pick papayas off the tree. They're one of the cheapest fruits around.

Monday, July 4, 2011

One of the must haves for Full Moon. The only ginger that my hubby likes. He is a ginger hater, but he loves pickled ginger.

It sounds easy to make pickled ginger. But it's not easy to make nice tasting pickled ginger. I've tasted quite a lot of not so nice ones before. Either too salty, too fiery, or not sourish enough or not enough sugar. One must be daring enough to put in vinegar and sugar. Not enough of either and the ginger taste somewhat off balanced. And the process is important too, and if not, the ginger will be too fiery.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Today Reuben is a month old.

Full Moon of the new baby is celebrated by the Chinese community to mark the baby being one month old. Usually either food is given out in packs or a reception will be done either at home or at restaurants. Whatever it is, it is celebrated with joy and cheer.

Back in those days.. when infant mortality rate is high, to get to a month old, is something BIG. Nowadays, with immunization, formula milk and better medical facilities, the mortality rate has definately dropped. Nevertheless, it is still something to be really happy about and it marks the end of my confinement!!!

Woohoo!! Freedom. The freedom to wash hair everyday(not once every 3 days), the freedom to bathe as many times as I like per day(not once per day), the freedom to drink iced drinks, the freedom to eat chilled fruits, the freedom to go out anytime and feel the breeze anytime I like, BUT!!! I will be stuck at home with baby, losing sleep, losing time, losing mobility to go out alone. It's the beginning of a new responsibility when my confinement lady leaves the house. Chores and everything will be back in my hands.